BORIS JOHNSON has demanded that pubs, cafes and restaurants close on Friday in an unprecedented step to stop Britons going out.

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Prime Minister Boris Johnson pleaded with Britons to resist the urge to go to pubs, clubs, bars and restaurants on Friday night as he demanded these establishments remain closed over the weekend. During his press conference on Friday, he said: "These measures are intended to be temporary. I am confident, in time, the UK economy is going to bounce back, of course, it is.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson pleaded with Britons to resist the urge to go to pubs, clubs, bars and restaurants on Friday night as he demanded these establishments remain closed over the weekend. (Image: Getty)

"We also want these establishments to not open tomorrow.

"To be clear, they can continue to provide takeout services.

"We are also telling nightclubs, theatres, cinemas, gyms and leisure centres to close on the same time scale."

Mr Johnson explained the reasoning behind the Government's decision to now ask these places of business to close.

He said: "These are places where people come together and indeed the whole purpose of these businesses are to bring people together.

Earlier this week the Government announced schools would be closing on Friday to help fight against the spread of coronavirus (Image: Getty)

"The sad thing is I'm afraid, at least physically, we need to keep people apart.

"I want to stress that we will review the situation each month to see if we can relax any of these measures."

Mr Johnson then appealed to the people of Britain to adhere to these rules for the safety of the most vulnerable in society as well as themselves.

He said: "Some people may be tempted to go out tonight and I say to you, please don't.

"You may think that you are invincible but there is no guarantee that you will get mild symptoms and you can still be a carrier of the disease and pass it on to others.